Good Friday: Jesus In My Place

"One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying,

"Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" (Luke 23:39)

I've heard it said before that the Gospel can be summarized in four words: Jesus in my place. On Good Friday, we see this very truth carried out. Jesus, the Lamb of God, did in fact take the place of men, that there might be an opportunity of salvation for all who believe. For those who do believe, Jesus, on that cross, stood in their place. "In my place, condemned, he stood..."

Today I want to examine one verse of scripture that we find in the narrative of the crucifixion: Luke 23:29. But before we do, let us remember all that was happening on that cross:

In the physical realm, Jesus was beaten (Luke 22:63), flogged (John 19:1), stricken by the hands of men (John 19:3), given a crown of thorns (John 19:2), crucified (Luke 23:33), killed (Luke 23:46), and buried (Luke 23:53). In the social realm, he was denied by his friend (Luke 22:54-62), mocked (Luke 22:63-65), convicted and accused unjustly (Luke 22:66-23:16), delivered over (Luke 23:18-25), and blasphemed (Luke 22:65, 39). But most importantly, in the spiritual realm (of which we often forget), he was sorrowful (Is. 53:3), bearing of our iniquities (Is. 53:6), and, most importantly, enduring the wrath of God on our behalf (Mark 15:34, 2 Cor. 5:21, 2 Pet. 3:18).

Upon that cross, Jesus, though innocent, stood condemned. Scripture has it written that "cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" (Gal. 3:13).

In Luke 23:39, we find one of the criminals who was hanging beside Jesus cry out, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" With this statement, the criminal was first acknowledging Jesus' power. He asked him if he was the "Christ"--the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament who would come to save the Jewish people. The criminal knew that if Jesus was in fact the Christ, he had the full ability to both save himself and the other two criminals beside him, and he was right.

Thus, the criminal shouted out: "Save yourself and us!" But here, we find the criminal's mistake. In the first part of his statement, his theology was great. His understanding of the Messiah and his belief that Jesus could rescue himself and others from death was on par. But in the next statement, the criminal made a critical mistake in his theology. He thought that Jesus could save himself and others. Could he? Temporarily, of course. Jesus could have easily done a miracle--as he had so many times before--and rescue himself and others from death.

But eternally, he could not save both himself and man. You see, what the criminal on the cross didn't understand that if Jesus would have saved himself from that cross, he could not have saved mankind. Because of our own sin, and because of the holy judgment of God, someone had to bear the wrath of God for sin. It could be Jesus or it could be us, but it could not be neither, and it could not be both. It was either Jesus bearing my sin on the cross or me bearing my sin in eternal hell. And Jesus knew this. And thus, though he could have taken himself off the cross, he was "led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Is. 53:7).

You see, my friends, there are two ways, and only two ways, that our sins can be paid for. Each of us has sinned and fallen short of God's glory, and the wages of sin is death. And every man on this earth has a choice: to die an eternal death for his own sins in hell, or repent and believe in the Gospel (Mk. 1:15). For those who repent and believe, their sin is counted towards Jesus' account on the cross, and Jesus' righteousness is counted to their account, that they might not be guilty of sin any longer.

This, dear friends, is the Gospel: Jesus in my place. He could have delivered himself, but if he would have, we would not be saved. He could have delivered himself or he could have delivered us. Thank the Lord that he chose the latter, because only he was strong enough to triumph over death. We could not have rescued ourselves from the power of death, but Jesus could. But I'm getting ahead of myself...